Cancer-killing virus tried in pet cats moves to human trials

Posted on July 19, 2016

From FierceAnimalHealth:

Canadian scientists are perfecting a cancer-killing virus and trying it in cats, dogs and people.

Scientists at Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph have discovered that injecting a cancer-killing virus into the spleens of cats who have developed cancer boosts the animals’ immune response to the disease. They believe the discovery–of both the virus and the delivery mode–can be applied to many types of cancer in people, including breast cancer, leukemia and prostate cancer.

The researchers are working with an engineered form of the bug rhabdovirus, they reported in the Journal of Immunology. Injecting the virus into the spleen, they wrote, led to a rapid proliferation of memory T cells–an immune response that helps the body fight off cancer on its own.

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